PROVIDENCE — A group of Rhode Island’s academic, economic and labor leaders met Wednesday morning to begin crafting a way for the state to capitalize on its various health sciences organizations.

PROVIDENCE — A group of Rhode Island’s academic, economic and labor leaders met Wednesday morning to begin crafting a way for the state to capitalize on its various health sciences organizations.

The Governor’s Health Sciences Task Force, headed by Marcel Valois — the new head of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation — is being asked to give direction to the state’s efforts to create new jobs and draw new investments into the medical and science fields.

The intent, Valois told the newly convened group of academic, business, government and labor leaders, is to develop guidance that can be included in a statewide comprehensive plan now under development by Rhode Island officials. That plan will direct state efforts in 10 broad sectors of the Rhode Island economy — the health sciences among them. It is due for completion in mid-2014.

Wednesday’s initial meeting included discussion of the recently announced joint Rhode Island College-University of Rhode Island nursing education program to be housed in a redeveloped South Street Power Station in Providence, along with Brown University academic offices and new college student housing at the adjacent Davol Square commercial complex.

Valois expects the joint project will be a “catalytic,” an initiative that spurs other development in the Jewelry District and the land opened by the Route 195 relocation work.

It is a description that found agreement around the long conference table inside the EDC’s headquarters at the rehabbed ALCO mill complex, which included administrators from three universities and a college, as well as Rhode Island labor and business leaders.

Michael Sabitoni, president of the Rhode Island Building Trades Council, said the joint project will serve as both an “anchor” for the district and a way to advertise that Rhode Island “is open for business” as the R.I. Convention Center and T.F. Green Airport projects served to do.

The discussion that followed was general in nature as attendees sought some direction for the task force’s efforts over at least the next year.

“What we want to do is foster a culture of innovation in Rhode Island” within the health sciences and life sciences, said URI President David Dooley.

They noted that some of the topics natural to this group are being hashed out in similar forums around the state.

For instance, MedMates — a health-care technology network aimed at fostering collaboration among Rhode Island’s health-tech companies, hospitals, universities, investment sources and governmental partners, formed this year with a $50,000 grant from the Rhode Island Foundation.

In attendance Wednesday was Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. The business group she leads has worked over the last year or so with the Rhode Island medical and research community to develop Rhode Island into a nationally recognized “brain science” hub.

Dr. Timothy J. Babineau is president and chief executive officer of Lifespan, the hospital group that would be an integral part of such a hub. Babineau said such effort is long-term by its nature.

“We’ll know success, if in 10 years from now, God forbid, you have developed a brain condition, you say you have to go to Providence” for diagnosis and treatment, Babineau told the group.

Development of a broader health sciences sector will take coordinated, sustained, effort, Babineau said.

“It will take everybody who has an interest in this area getting behind it and putting their shoulder into [it],” Babineau said.

The role of the task force, Valois said, is to gather information about such ongoing projects and currently unpublicized research at Rhode Island institutions and companies to guide future state initiatives and investments to spur the sector’s growth and broader economic development within the state.